Democratic Governance

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INDICATORS AND MEASUREMENT POLICY IMPERATIVES
AND THE WAY FORWARD James George
Chacko UNDP-Asia Pacific Development Information
Programme (APDIP) Global Indicators Workshop on
Community Access to ICTs Mexico City,16-19
November 2004 Mexico City, Mexico
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• SITUATION ANALYSIS
• Governments are launching ambitious ICT
  infrastructure initiatives, radically changing
  their communications policy frameworks and
  situating ICT at the heart of their development
  programmes and strategy.
• Many developing countries, businesses and
  citizens groups are touting ICT as a means to
  transcend structural and historical weaknesses of
  developing nations in the economic, political,
  and social spheres. They argue that ICTs offer
  the developing world the opportunity to
  leapfrog several stages of their development
  and join the industrialized nations in the
  information age.

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• IMPACT ON HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
• ICT as a sector of economic activity
• ICT as an enabler for enhancing human
  productivity
• Breaking barriers to human knowledge
• Breaking barriers to participation
• Breaking barriers to economic opportunity

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• IMPACT ON HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
• ICT as a sector of economic activity
• An obvious impact of ICT is its contribution as
  an industry for the overall economic growth of a
  nation. The ICT sector and industry have
  witnessed unprecedented growth in the past
  decade. Global spending on information and
  communications technology was expected to grow
  from US2.1 trillion in 1999 to US3 trillion in
  by 2003.

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• IMPACT ON HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
• ICT as an enabler for enhancing human
  productivity
• used as control technology, leading to
  innovations in products and processes in the
  manufacturing sectors and resource extraction
  industries.
• ICTs have become indispensable ingredients in all
  forms and processes of economic activity
• directly expand choices through increased access
  to information and knowledge in 3 ways

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IMPACT ON HUMAN DEVELOPMENT Breaking barriers
to human knowledge - becoming key delivery
mechanisms for sections of the population that
did not have access to educational infrastructure
and content. - actively used in promoting
life-long learning and continued education,
reintegrating unemployed people into the
workforce through re-education and retooling of
skills.
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IMPACT ON HUMAN DEVELOPMENT Breaking barriers to
participation Internet and ICT based news and
information groups have contributed to the
creation of a far more vibrant public sphere. In
many parts of Asia, where the mass media have
been and continue to be strictly controlled by
governments, the Internet has offered a new
medium of political mobilization and
participation.
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• IMPACT ON HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
• Breaking barriers to economic opportunity
• ICT sector requires less initial investment than
  the more traditional sectors of industrial
  activity, it lowers the barriers to entry into
  the economy for people who could never break into
  the industrial sector.
• ICT provides new and unprecedented opportunities
  to people who have proficiency in handling ICT
  tools and have an idea or service to sell.

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STATISTICAL OVERVIEW Planners, policy makers and
researchers hold highly polarised and equivocal
views on the diffusion of Information and
Communication Technology (ICT), its role in
promoting objectives such as poverty alleviation,
universal education, reduction in mortality and
health hazards, and sustainable development, and
in bridging the digital as well as socio-economic
divides in the world.
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CASE STUDY Regional Human Development Report on
Promoting ICT for Human Development in Asia
Realising the Millennium Development Goals is
jointly prepared by the UNDP-Asia Pacific
Development Information Programme (APDIP) and the
Asia-Pacific Regional Human Development Reports
Initiative, Human Development Resource
Centre. attempts to go beyond the hype
surrounding the potential and promise of ICT for
developing countries
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• RATIONALE
• No such comparative study has been undertaken
  that seeks to concretely assess progress of ICT
  for development efforts in the Asia region.
• By focusing on the lens of human development -
  try to concretely link what is still
  traditionally advocated as technology issue with
  the organizations most recognized and primary
  core business focus - promoting human development
  and eradicating poverty.

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• MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS
• Framework to identify the objectives of human
  development as set by the UN and its member
  states.
• - Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger -
  Achieve universal primary education- Promote
  gender equality and empower women- Reduce child
  mortality- Improve maternal health- Combat
  HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases- Ensure
  environmental sustainability
• Develop a global partnership for development.

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• METHODOLOGY
• Research across 9 countries in Asia -- China,
  India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Pakistan,
  Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam - based on a mix
  of their Technology Achievement Index, including
  leaders, potential leaders, dynamic adopters and
  marginalized countries.
• To operationalise a conceptual framework and
  methodology to assess role and impact of ICTs on
  human development, it would be of critical
  significance to establish clear targets and goals
  of human development as measuring success and
  failure - systematic study using MDGs as a
  benchmark.

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• SCOPE
• Review and assess progress in drafting and
  implementing national e-policies and -strategies
  for reducing poverty and enhancing human
  development.
• In addition researchers also considered other
  factors, such as the proportion of cell phone
  subscribers, Internet users and personal computer
  owners, along with the charges for Internet and
  phone service, Internet access in schools, the
  proportion of women professional technical
  workers, and competition among service providers,
  etc.

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• SCOPE (cont.)
• Exploration of potential and promise of ICT
• Mapping status of ICT use and diffusion in Asia
• Case studies and best practices of ICT
  application
• Identification of challenges of ICT application
• Selection of ICT indicators relevant for human
  dev.
• Construction of a composite aggregate index that
  ranks the nine countries on their ICT use for
  achieving human development goals.

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• RESEARCH APPROACH
• 3 Levels of analysis and outputs
• Country Studies
• Regional Report
• Qualitative Index/ Indicators

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• RESEARCH APPROACH
• 3 Levels of analysis and outputs
• Country Studies (Specific)
• 9 country studies commissioned to national
  experts in the field of ICT and human
  development, to conduct detailed country-specific
  assessment of national ICT infrastructure,
  policies, governance mechanisms, priority areas
  of ICT use, private initiatives, and
  institutional frameworks programmes for promoting
  ICT access and training.

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RESEARCH APPROACH 3 Levels of analysis and
outputs b) Regional Report (Thematic) Overall
Research Coordinator drew from 9 country studies
to systematically explore linkages assess
status of ICT use and diffusion in Asia document
varied case studies and best practices of ICT
application identify challenges of ICT
application analyse the limitations of ICT in
furthering human development draw lessons from
multi-country experiences to identify policy
directions.
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RESEARCH APPROACH 3 Levels of analysis and
outputs c) Qualitative Index/ Indicators A
parallel quantitative study to complement the
rich qualitative research was carried out to -
select ICT indicators relevant for human
development - examine interdependency between
indicators of ICT and human development -
construct of a composite aggregate Index that
ranks the nine countries on their use ICT use for
achieving human development goals.
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QUANTITATIVE APPROACH Selected indicators were
used to construct a set of thematic component
indices covering five distinct dimensions of ICT
availability and use -- i)skill-independent ICTs
ii)skill dependent ICTs iii)efficiency and speed
iv)social sector targeting and v)vulnerable group
targeting. The component indices were then
aggregated into a composite aggregate ICTforHD
index, capturing ICT-MDG relationships.
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SAMPLE RESULTS Malaysia is highest on the
reports ranking of ICT use for human development
(known as the ICTforHD Index), well ahead of
China and Thailand. The rankings of the next
countries India, Mongolia, Pakistan and Sri
Lanka vary depending on the statistical method
used, while Indonesia ranks third from last and
Viet Nam last.
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SAMPLE RESULTS India ranked high in targeting
vulnerable groups for its high proportion of
female professional and technical workers, public
Internet access, laws on ICT use and competition
among service providers. China, second overall,
ranked sixth in this area.
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• INDICATORS
• Policy input requires both tangible and
  intangible measurements its a continuous
  cyclic process
• Tangible Connectivity of local relevant
  content costs infrastructure technology, etc.
• Intangible Capacity skills purpose
  usability sustainability management
  socio-economic structure.

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• ISSUES
• What Primary questions have to centre on
  definition, methodology, collection, analysis,
  evaluation, accuracy, comparability, standards,
  and sufficiency.
• Who Role and Tasks
• How Design, implement, analyse, disseminate
• Why Purpose and objective
• - Policy / up streaming cyclic process
• - Dissemination input and development

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CONCLUSION The study concludes that while
availability or supply-side indicators of ICT are
undoubtedly important from the human development
perspective, more information needs to be
gathered on access, types of applications,
characteristics of users, content, etc. Thus
the demand side needs to be brought in much more
strongly to capture the spread of technology
across social and economic classes, regions,
sexes,etc. Data on ICT availability and use
across rural-urban, male-female and other
categories could help in quantifying digital
divides.
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• CONCLUSION
• Clearly indicate that with regards to specific
  areas of human development, strategic deployment
  of ICTs can help in advancing human development
  by alleviating poverty, enhancing education and
  improving healthcare.
• However, a simple and technologically
  deterministic vision of ICTs and their impact on
  human development must be avoided.

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BENEFITS The Index could be a very useful tool
for policy makers to help them focus more sharply
on those specific dimensions of ICT for human
development where there are weaknesses - data
includes indicators on the extent that countries
target some social sectors and rural groups,
which is a significant contribution to monitoring
the digital divide.
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THANK YOU

• James George Chacko
• james_at_apdip.net
• Wisma UN, Block C
• Kompleks Pejabat Damansara
• Jalan Dungun, Damansara Heights
• 50490 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
• Tel [phone]
• Fax [phone]